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MacBook Aluminium woes

I

iRedZ

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 19, 2011
9
0
I have a 2.0GHz aluminum MacBook that is running slow (slow to boot, and slow to shut off) so I upgraded the RAM to 4GB (max for that model) and there is no speed boost in startup or shutdown (improvements in application launch times, however)

I tried just about everything to speed this thing up (didn't reinstall OSX)

I think that I may have a hard drive issue though. it is kind of loud and makes alot of noises.

What do you guys suggest to speed things up? Has anyone else had this kind of issue before? Im running OS 10.6.6, by the way.
 
alust2013

alust2013

macrumors 601
Feb 6, 2010
4,779
2
On the fence
It sounds like the hard drive may be dying if it's making a lot of noise and is slow, so I'd get a backup and consider replacing it.
 
I

iRedZ

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 19, 2011
9
0
alust2013 said:
It sounds like the hard drive may be dying if it's making a lot of noise and is slow, so I'd get a backup and consider replacing it.
Click to expand...

Yeah, thats what I am assuming. I have time machine backups fortunately :)!

What kind of HDD do you recommend? I am looking at a Western Digital Scorpio Blue (5200 RPM) or a Scorpio Black (7200 RPM)
 
smileyborg

smileyborg

macrumors 6502
May 12, 2009
267
0
You could try taking it in to a Genius Bar and see what they say...they're usually quite helpful.

How full is your hard drive? If you have very little free space, it's possible that's slowing things down. Or, as has been mentioned, your drive could be failing. Or it could be something else, such as some software or process that is running in the background and is slowing the system down.

You can poke around in Activity Monitor and look for unusual things such as high CPU usage, lots of disk I/Os, etc. that could be a sign of something being wrong.
 
I

iRedZ

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 19, 2011
9
0
smileyborg said:
You could try taking it in to a Genius Bar and see what they say...they're usually quite helpful.

How full is your hard drive? If you have very little free space, it's possible that's slowing things down. Or, as has been mentioned, your drive could be failing. Or it could be something else, such as some software or process that is running in the background and is slowing the system down.

You can poke around in Activity Monitor and look for unusual things such as high CPU usage, lots of disk I/Os, etc. that could be a sign of something being wrong.
Click to expand...

93 Gigs free (its a 160 gig drive). I tried poking around in activity monitor, but it wasnt a very through search. I will look in the activity monitor again, and see what I can find. I dont know about taking it to the Genus Bar. I have a feeling that all they will do is run hardware test, and tell me nothing is wrong ( and then try and sell me something I dont even need, or want).
 
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V

Vel

macrumors member
Jul 5, 2008
88
1
iRedZ said:
93 Gigs free (its a 160 gig drive). I tried poking around in activity monitor, but it wasnt a very through such. I will look in the activity monitor again, and see what I can find. I dont know about taking it to the Genus Bar. I have a feeling that all they will do is run hardware test, and tell me nothing is wrong ( and then try and sell me something I dont even need, or want).
Click to expand...
I'm feeling your pain, mine is the same (except I have the 2.4 model).

I updated the HDD to a 7200RPM drive in my GFs MB a while ago and hers is noticeably faster than mine

So I suggest either replacing your HDD with a 7200RPM drive or do what I'm thinking of and getting a caddy similar to 'OptiBay' to have an SSD replace the Superdrive for the OS and Apps and also upgrade my stock HDD to a 7200RPM drive for storage, or if you don't have much data on your laptop, which it appears you don't it maybe worth replacing your stock drive with just an SSD,

Vel
 
I

iRedZ

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 19, 2011
9
0
Vel said:
I'm feeling your pain, mine is the same (except I have the 2.4 model).

I updated the HDD to a 7200RPM drive in my GFs MB a while ago and hers is noticeably faster than mine

So I suggest either replacing your HDD with a 7200RPM drive or do what I'm thinking of and getting a caddy similar to 'OptiBay' to have an SSD replace the Superdrive for the OS and Apps and also upgrade my stock HDD to a 7200RPM drive for storage, or if you don't have much data on your laptop, which it appears you don't it maybe worth replacing your stock drive with just an SSD,

Vel
Click to expand...


"I'm feeling your pain, mine is the same" lol that rhymed :D:D

Jokes Aside,

So with a 7200 RPM drive, do you (or your GF) notice any extra noise and vibrations? How about battery life? What model macbook does she have? sorry for all the questions.

I really want to go the SSD route, but those are alittle bit out of my price range.

I think if I had a larger drive, I would use more of it. Ya know what I mean?
 
V

Vel

macrumors member
Jul 5, 2008
88
1
iRedZ said:
"I'm feeling your pain, mine is the same" lol that rhymed :D:D

Jokes Aside,

So with a 7200 RPM drive, do you (or your GF) notice any extra noise and vibrations? How about battery life? What model macbook does she have? sorry for all the questions.

I really want to go the SSD route, but those are alittle bit out of my price range.

I think if I had a larger drive, I would use more of it. Ya know what I mean?
Click to expand...

Haha, I didn't even notice lol.

She has a White MacBook (also 2.4Ghz) it was the model just before ours was released.

The only noise which comes from the laptop is when it's running playing a lot of flash content (the fans starting whirring etc) but that's because it didn't have a stand alone GFX card.

In terms of the HDD I have never heard it and she said she has noticed no difference (I hardly use it) but even if there was anything I don't think they would be noticed on the Unibody versions as I always perceive the plastic MacBooks to be quite flimsy by comparison.

When she first got the laptop she used to average just over 3hours on the battery, with most of her time doing work whilst at University.

However since the change she gets around 2.5hours, but uses it a lot more for watching videos and web browsing. Not sure if the reduction of time is due to change of use or a change in the HDD, but the laptop is still very useable.

I know what you mean amount the space, but even if you decided not to go the SSD route you could pick up a 500GB 7200 drive pretty cheap

I am based in the UK and would probably look to use something along the lines of http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Dig...SDGU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1298229314&sr=8-2

I personally like WD drives as I have used them forever without any issues (also what's in my GF's MB). I have never had one fail on me in 5/6 years I have been using them and I currently own around 10 WD drives, but make does come down to personal preference for the best part.

If you have any further questions I would be happy to answer them,

Vel
 
I

iRedZ

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 19, 2011
9
0
Vel said:
Haha, I didn't even notice lol.

She has a White MacBook (also 2.4Ghz) it was the model just before ours was released.

The only noise which comes from the laptop is when it's running playing a lot of flash content (the fans starting whirring etc) but that's because it didn't have a stand alone GFX card.

In terms of the HDD I have never heard it and she said she has noticed no difference (I hardly use it) but even if there was anything I don't think they would be noticed on the Unibody versions as I always perceive the plastic MacBooks to be quite flimsy by comparison.

When she first got the laptop she used to average just over 3hours on the battery, with most of her time doing work whilst at University.

However since the change she gets around 2.5hours, but uses it a lot more for watching videos and web browsing. Not sure if the reduction of time is due to change of use or a change in the HDD, but the laptop is still very useable.

I know what you mean amount the space, but even if you decided not to go the SSD route you could pick up a 500GB 7200 drive pretty cheap

I am based in the UK and would probably look to use something along the lines of http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Dig...SDGU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1298229314&sr=8-2

I personally like WD drives as I have used them forever without any issues (also what's in my GF's MB). I have never had one fail on me in 5/6 years I have been using them and I currently own around 10 WD drives, but make does come down to personal preference for the best part.

If you have any further questions I would be happy to answer them,

Vel
Click to expand...

Thanks for the information, very helpful!!

I think I may stick with a 5200 RPM HDD to conserve battery, but im not completely sure yet. I dont do much intensive stuff on my macbook, apart from the occasional movie/ light photo editing disk burning, and a little bit of web design in iWeb. Mainly just web browsing and email, and a game or two.


i think I might will go with one of these upgrades

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Western Digital/YWD2500BEVT/ (5400)

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Western Digital/YWD3200BEKT/ (7200)

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Hitachi/Y0A73333/ (7200)

Any experience with Hitachi drives or one of these kits?
 
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